The Lepow U-Stone Series 12000mAh External Battery is a portable battery charger with extremely high capacity. It can charge smartphones, most tablets as well as all small gadgets such MP3 players, Bluetooth headsets and more. With a capacity that beats out most portable battery chargers, it's easy to just take this battery on the road for all your devices.

Design

Lepow doesn't believe batteries should all come in a square or rectangular block. The U-Stone battery has a shape and surface texture of a water-beaten stone. The Lepow U-Stone comes in Stone Gray and Khaki Brown, both nice colors for the natural look. The surface has soft touch coating and while the shape is curvy, the U-Stone is actually pretty grippy. Surprisingly, the large capacity battery offers only one charging port. Both the USB output port and the micro USB recharging input port live at the top of the "stone" shape that's cut flat and the Lepow U-Stone comes with a short USB/micro USB charging cable.

The design philosophy extends from the product to package as well with U-Stone. The earthy eggshell like recyclable package matches the nature-loving style of the product, and the red, white and blue elastic band gives the packaging a 60s' look. An ancient Chinese word for unit measurement on a leather piece encloses the elastic band. The battery weighs 11.6 ounces and measures 6.8 x 3.2 x 1.0 inches.

Features

The Lepow U-Stone Series 12000mAh External Battery has built-in safety features such as over charge protection, over current and short circuit protection. As with many battery chargers on the market, the Lepow U-Stone offers four LED lights that indicate the battery power level, but unlike most batteries, it doesn't have a button to press to show the power. You can shake the battery slightly to turn on the LED lights. The battery comes with a short recharge cable and takes about 7 hours to fully charge.

With the incredible large capacity, it's almost a shame that the Lepow U-Stone Series 12000mAh External Battery only offers one charging port. What hurts it even more is that output port has max of 1.8A. We tested many smartphones and tablets with the Lepow U-Stone, and found it handled smartphones with ease but took long time to charge tablets. The battery can charge two smartphones (an LG G Flex and Nokia Lumia Icon) with 25% of its power, the iPhone 5s at least twice with 25% of its power. It can charge the iPad mini twice and almost fill the iPad Air's battery from empty to full. The only tablet it couldn't charge was the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 which requires high quality battery and higher output amperage. If you need something to charge that one on the go, try the Patriot FUEL+ 9000mAh battery. The Lepow U-Stone Series 12000mAh External Battery doesn't support fast charging on most devices, and takes about 3-5 hours to charge smartphones and about 6 hours to charge tablets.

Conclusion

If you travel frequently on long trips with your tech gadgets, the Lepow U-Stone Series 12000mAh External Battery can provide ton of juice. The battery is light enough to carry and has a pleasing design in both color options. The incredible beefy capacity is hampered by lower output amperage and by offering only one charging port instead of two or more.